Epic Forms

Harvard FAS

This seminar will focus on the formal structures of the epic genre. Through a comparative approach, we will study the narrative, stylistic and linguistic components of the epic genre across the Greco-Roman epic tradition. Formulae, sacrifices, arming scenes, combat and death, catalogues, storms, and messenger scenes are some examples of recurrent epic structures. What can the handling of these mundane elements of the epic genre tell us about each poet’s narrative approach and poetics? What…